Leeza Gibbons’ Night to Make a Difference Streamed Live Over the Highwinds CDN

February 23, 2009

WINTER PARK, Fla., Feb. 23 /PRNewswire/ — Highwinds Network Group, Inc.,
a multi-platform IP services and content distribution provider, today
announced that
Leeza Gibbons’ “A Night to Make a Difference” event was webcast
live over its content delivery network (CDN) last night from Mr. Chow inBeverly Hills.
Leeza Gibbons,
Olivia Newton-John and
David Foster hosted the
high-profile awards viewing dinner party and after-party, a unique event that
put the focus on advocacy, philanthropy and volunteerism. In the altruistic
spirit of the event, Highwinds donated the use of its CDN technologies and
delivery services for the event webcast. Highwinds worked closely with
Marc
Scarpa, veteran director and producer of live interactive media, and partners
Arqiva and Ooyala, who also donated their products and services in support of
this event.

“This special event was the culmination of the hard work, dedication and
generosity exhibited by our committee members, sponsors and celebrity
contributors,” said
Leeza Gibbons. “At the heart of our event was a theme of
empowerment among the celebrity community, empowerment to make a difference
through advocacy, philanthropy and volunteerism. I am so fortunate to have
been surrounded by such caring people who came together to make a difference
to our nonprofit beneficiaries. And it was remarkable to be able to share our
purposeful party live with the public through
Marc Scarpa’s webcast, which was
delivered flawlessly to our online supporters.”

The iconic Mr. Chow in Beverly Hills served as the venue for this
first-of-its-kind event, which brought together stars of film, TV, music,
sports and fashion — celebrities who were driven to lead by example and use
their notoriety for the greater good. A live webcast of the philanthropic
party, which took place during and after last night’s Academy Awards ceremony,
was available for viewing on the event’s web site,www.leezagibbonsoscarnight.com and syndicated to various partner sites,
including www.extratv.com, www.variety.com and www.glam.com. Highwinds
provided the technology and bandwidth needed to successfully stream live
coverage of the event to online viewers over its CDN, which was built to
support the streaming of high-profile events.

Arqiva, known for its ability to quickly and effectively prep live video
for distribution, provided satellite newsgathering trucks, transponder time,
teleport services and live encoding services in support of “A Night to Make a
Difference.” “Arqiva’s satellite connectivity onsite at Mr. Chow and
real-time encoding services served as the bridge between the production unit
headed by Mr. Scarpa and the Highwinds CDN, which streamed the event live to
online viewers,” said
Mark Hayes, vice president of marketing and business
development at Highwinds. “The teams worked closely together to rapidly
direct, produce, encode and stream the webcast, keeping pace with the
evening’s lineup of epicurean food, award festivities and celebrity
presentations.”

“We were extremely pleased with the involvement of our webcast partners in
working with us to stream ‘A Night to Make a Difference’ to worldwide
audiences,” said
Marc Scarpa, director and producer. “The webcast was
available through various web sites and delivered flawlessly over the
Highwinds CDN. I look forward to working with Highwinds on future streaming
projects.”

Ooyala, provider of video syndication and monetization technologies,
supported the Oscar night party with pre- and post-event videos for on-demand
global viewing. Its video management platform, which simplifies the process
of managing multiple videos, has enabled
Leeza Gibbons’ team to showcase the
star-studded event with continued post-event coverage on its partner web
sites. The on-demand videos created by Ooyala are being delivered over the
Highwinds CDN.